WARNING: This Article May Contain Spoilers
I’ll be honest, you can’t really write about international horror films and not have an article on Japanese horror. They have brought us Ju-On and Ringu – which are creepy on their own but the Americans thought the ideas were so good that they had to remake them. Mentioning which, as I have covered both for that reason already, you won’t find either below…
The Complex
I actually had to watch this film twice because, if I’m honest, I got completely lost with what was going on. It came across as having a little bit of a Sixth Sense vibe – you know “I see dead people” and all that. I even thought, maybe, Groundhog Day but not every day was exactly the same it was just the mornings. I did however, come to the conclusion about 30 minutes in that Asuka’s parents were dead – but at times it’s hard to tell which parts are actually happening. To be honest, I couldn’t work out if she was haunted or the complex was haunted because only she seemed to be able to see these people. It’s a slow burner, and reasonably confusing, but it’s worth a watch. Especially for the ending.
Dead Sushi
Come on, who doesn’t love a comedy horror? There’s a phrase that gets thrown around a lot nowadays – that escalated quickly – and in all honesty, if this film isn’t the epitome of that then I don’t know what is. This may possibly be the weirdest film I’ve ever seen. I get why it’s called Dead Sushi, but ‘Killer Sushi’ would have worked just as well. It isn’t scary in the least, but it’s definitely one of those films that you could watch that has a horror theme but would give you more of a laugh than anything else.
Dark Water
I’m trying to decide if this film is supposed to be a psychological thriller or a ghost story. Either way, it is pretty slow going which is annoying. You see very little of Mitsuko for her to be deemed as the antagonist in the story other than the fact that she is clearly luring Ikuko away, but for what purpose is unclear – even an hour into the film. I feel like maybe she is trying to get her own case solved from beyond the grave and, don’t get me wrong, the way Mitsuko dies is pretty dark once revealed but I have absolutely no idea what it has to do with Ikuko. I do think, however, that other directors wouldn’t have been as brave in showing a child being drowned – whether that be Mitsuko falling into the tank or Ikuko’s head being pulled into the bath tub.
Machine Girl
I wonder if this film is considered as horror because of how violent it is instead of how scary it is. Technically this is more of a revenge film than anything else, even down to the training montage! But then again, I guess people have different opinions on what constitutes as horror, however I think it still needs to be scary to some extent not just gory. I think, if the film took itself a little less seriously and they played on it being a comedy horror, like Dead Sushi and One Cut of the Dead maybe it would have been a little better.
One Cut of the Dead
I couldn’t resist, a second comedy horror film. I absolutely loved this film. I was really confused at first but thought maybe this is from a director who had a really low budget but they’ve been doing really well with it. You know, because you look at a lot of Japanese horror and they can be high budget masterpieces like Ju-On. The confusion continued when the credits rolled about 40 minutes into the film…
However, thankfully there’s an explanation – which I’m not going to go too far into because I genuinely think it might ruin the twist for first time viewers. Really, what I’m trying to say is that even if you think this is a fast, cheap and average film – please stick with it and watch until the end…it’ll be worth it!
Juho 2405 – Reason of my death
On the face of it, it seems that this film follows the usual Japanese horror trope of the fact that what is happening in the film is being caused by a curse. What I didn’t understand was the order of events – is what’s happening to these people happening because Reika has read the story on the air or are we seeing what happened to them after she tells us? Well, that definitely seems to come clear a little later on. I get the feeling this film may have started out as a university project as certain parts still look a little bit rough and ready. For example, what we are seeing is what I believe to be flashback scenes to show why all this is happening, there clips of just a pink screen. I feel like this is meant to be what it’s like inside the uterus because we only see it when she is talking to her unborn baby, but it’s just a little odd and feels out of place. It’s this, along with the use of ‘shaky-cam’ that gives the project feel to the film. However, what I will say is that Akane, the little girl, is pretty damn creepy!
